Read This: Rob Delaney explains March Madness

The Internet is full of interesting things to read outside of The A.V. Club—no, really! In our periodic Read This posts, we point you toward interesting or noteworthy pieces that caught our eye.

Let’s face it: The cultural institution known as “March Madness” is incredibly popular and influential despite the fact that no one, including the people involved, have any idea what it is. Heck, the best anyone could figure out was that it had something to do with basketball and colleges and abnormally tall gentlemen and brackets and Bob Costas, probably.

Until now, that is! Twitter Superstar™ and “King Of Pop” Rob Delaney has left the 140-character limitations of Twitter for his Tumblr page to explain exactly how this curious basketball institution works in a way that makes it seem complicated to the point of insanity. This appears under the heading “HOW DOES IT WORK!”

I’ll be honest with you right now: I don’t 100% know. No one does because there are NO RULES. It wouldn’t be MAD if it had guidelines written by some doughy lump at Harvard or Cal State San Dominguez, would it? Correct. It wouldn’t be.

In any case, the idea is that one team has to be the maddest, or “most mad.” Each game has a task that has to be completed to the satisfaction of the judges, while also playing a full game of basketball, if possible.

It goes on from there in a way that’s entertaining, but most of all edifying. And by “edifying” we of course mean, “unbelievably confusing.” Enjoy!